For our butterfly feature post, I thought I would share some of the fun ideas that relate to each of the four phases of the life cycle of a butterfly.

Life Cycle of a Butterfly Activities

Many of us see butterflies as they float through the air but did you know it's also possible to see all of the phases of butterfly development.

Kids will delight in watching them grow from eggs to caterpillars that build a chrysalis and then hatch into beautiful butterflies.

Here's a group of great nature posts that will allow your child to follow the life cycle of a butterfly! We've also included affiliate links to books, science items & supplies so you can do your own life cycle project at home too.

One of the best ways to introduce your child to the idea of a butterfly life cycle is by reading a story about how butterflies are born, emerge and go on to produce other butterflies.

Some of our favorite books that share the lifecycle of a butterfly include:

The first person who actually discovered that butterflies had a life cycle was a young girl who lived during the Middle Ages. The story of how butterflies were identified is captured in the book Summer Birds. Stacking Books reviews the wonderful book in their post The Butterflies of Maria Merian.

If you plan to raise butterflies at your house, you'll want to have a butterfly habitat (so they have a safe place to emerge and you don't have butterflies flying around your home ;) If you don't have a lot of room in your house, you can also try this mini pop-up butterfly habitat for inside or outside use.

And Fireflies & Mud Pies shows us what a great adventure it can be to experience butterflies hatching in the wild! If you're lucky to find a cocoon in your backyard, turn it into an nature observation activity to see what type of butterfly will emerge.